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Wednesday, 11 June 2014

Balik Pulau - Exhibition

The latest free exhibition at the National Museum of Singapore is called Balik Pulau and I visited this morning.Balik Pulau means "back to the island" in Malay. This small exhibition explains that there were, until quite recently, 70 islands making up Singapore with many being populated with thriving communities, schools and a long standing traditional way of life. However with land reclamation and various other issues these island people were moved onto the mainland, were separated from their fellow islanders and their history and way of life has slowly seeped away. Although a small exhibition it has been laid out very well with "islands" as information stands on each particular island. Each island has a video link as well as a booklet with photos and brief history of the events of each "island"

I probably spent 45 mins here viewing this and would recommend it to anyone, especially if they are visiting the museum anyway - pop in. It would have been good if they were able to print a booklet with the history of the islands, as although I read all about them it would be good to have something to refer to and be able to learn more about these lost islands.Where once there were 70 islands there are now 63. A list of these can be found here. https://sg.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090127075756AAOmHFM It certainly made me want to investigate further.